SERIOUSLY ill country ­patients are forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars travelling to Sydney for medical care because of a shockingly stingy government subsidy.

Just $43 per night for ­accommodation, roughly the same as putting a dog in kennels for a night, is what the NSW government scheme ­allows bush patients coming to Sydney for medical treatments ­including chemotherapy.

And patients can claim only 19 cents per kilometre in mileage, less than one-third of the figure allowed by the Australian Tax Office for work-related mileage.

By contrast, federal public servants can claim $185 per night for accommodation in Sydney, while federal MPs get $375 per night and NSW country-based MPs can claim $135 per night.

The Sunday Telegraph is calling on the state government to increase the accommodation rate and the mileage ­allowance.

Chronic Illness Alliance spokeswoman Dr Christine Walker describes the schemes as “a total exploitation of sick people”. She says the schemes are so complex “you need a PhD to fill out the forms”.

“The amount you get back for petrol is minimal and it doesn’t even cover parking.”

She’s aware of some ­patients who get up at 4am to travel and get home at midnight because they can’t afford accommodation in cities.

“They go without meals and coffee because they need to save money,” she said.

Others stay with friends or go into debt to pay for decent motel accommodation.

Cancer Voices Australia CEO John Stubbs said the Isolated Patients Travel and ­Accommodation Assistance Scheme (IPTAAS) covers “little more than the cost of putting your dog in a kennel”.

Rural Doctor’s Association president Dr Ian Kamerman describes the it “a piddling amount”. “I don’t know many places in Sydney where you can get accommodation for $40 a night,” he said.

The Sunday Telegraph could only find a shared dormitory in a backpacker lodge for that price. You can stay in a tent on Cockatoo Island for $45-$155 a night but even a caravan park cabin costs $110.

The Australian Tax Office says it’s reasonable for someone earning less than $108,000 to claim up to $185 in accommodation expenses if they have to travel to Sydney for work.

The inadequate accommodation subsidies are forcing sick people to rely on charities such as Can Assist to provide cheap accommodation for them.

But even these are under pressure. Can Assist had to close its heritage-listed accommodation at the Jean Colvin Cancer Centre in 2013 because it was too costly to run.

It is currently funding 10 serviced apartments at Bondi until the end of this year, after that the 51 local branches of the charity will be left to find ­accommodation in Sydney for 360 cancer patients a year.

The 19c/km mileage rate has increased by just four cents per kilometre since 2006. Four parliamentary inquiries have called for the state-run patient travel schemes to be improved.

NSW Health Minster Jillian Skinner says the government boosted funding for IPTAAS by $28 million over four years.

“The increase in funding means a 30 per cent boost in accommodation subsidies and a 25 per cent boost in petrol subsidies,” she said.

The state government also simplified ­applications for the subsidies.

But a parliamentary committee heard one patient had to make a 220km trip to have the travel subsidy form filled out by their GP before taking a 1440km round trip to Brisbane.

Rural Doctors Association president Dr Ian Kamerman says the closure of rural airlines such as Brindabella Airlines had made it even harder for sick people in the bush to travel to Sydney for care.

ONE minute 17-year-old Shannon McKnight was just a year 12 student with a kidney infection, the next blood tests at Wagga Wagga Base hospital changed life in an instant with a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

“We didn’t get much notice. I went in for a kidney infection and I was sent off to Sydney that night at 10pm,” Shannon said. That was in April and with several rounds of chemo already under way and a bone-marrow transplant planned for August, she is likely to be at Prince of Wales Hospital for six months.

Her father Jeremy, who lives in Ballarat, and her mother Jodie, who lives in Wagga, have given up their jobs to be with her as she fights for her life. “Everything just stops. You take care of what is most important. I haven’t been home in four months,” Mr McKnight said.

Shannon’s parents have accommodation provided for them in Waverton thanks to Leukaemia Foundation, which owns a unit.

But for Jodie, the 1000km return trips to Wagga to care for Shannon’s brother Brandon, 13, and Sydney’s tolls, are chewing up her life savings.

“When Shannon became sick I gave up work and once every three weeks I come back to Wagga for Brandon. I can do the trip in a tank which is $85 one-way but just going over the Harbour Bridge every day has clocked up $400 in two months,” she said.

“We’re lucky we have a free unit but even the price of food here is more expensive. You can’t afford take out. I haven’t tallied it all up and I didn’t even know you could claim anything,” she said.

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